It’s official! All the votes are in!

PRINCETON — The official results of the April 9 consolidated election are tabulated, with all absentee ballots received and counted. There were no changes in the final results.

The big question of the April 9 election was the final outcome of the Hall High School referendum, which asked voters to approve $32 million in bonds to build a new school. That referendum was approved on April 9 by only three ballots — a 1,716 to 1,713 vote.

After counting absentee ballots on Tuesday afternoon, Bureau County Clerk Kami Hieronymus said the final vote went up by one on each side, resulting in 1,717 yes votes and 1,714 no votes for the Hall referendum.

The close results in the Hall referendum show the importance of each and every vote, Hieronymus said. Election after election, there are close races, and people need to remember to exercise their rights to vote, she said.

The Malden Grade School Board election also showed the importance of every single vote. The Malden School Board race had four candidates for three positions. On April 9, two of the open seats were won by Jim May with 205 votes and Mary Joiner with 168 votes. But Tawnya Marciniak and Jonathan Ross tied for the third seat with both candidates receiving 158 votes.

Since none of the absentee ballots counted Tuesday afternoon affected the Malden Grade School race, Hieronymus conducted a drawing in her office on Wednesday morning. Both candidates were in attendance for the drawing which was won by Marciniak.

The final count of absentee ballots on Tuesday did not change the results of two other close elections on April 9.

In the Princeton City Council race, newcomer Ray Mabry easily won one of the two open commissioner seats with 723 votes. Incumbent Bob Warren beat out incumbent Terry Madsen for the second open seat winning by only eight votes, with a 597 to 589 vote. Candidate Paul Breseman received 256 votes.

After counting the absentee ballots on Tuesday afternoon, Hieronymus said the only change was Madsen got one more vote to bring his final count up to 590, but not enough to take the second open seat from Warren.

Spring Valley City Council also had a closely contested race for the Second Ward seat. On April 9, the sole incumbent, Chuck Hansen beat out challenger Fred West on a 140-137 vote margin for the one open seat. Other vote-getters for the seat were Paul Humpage (118), Jeff Chiaventone (72), Edward Zeglis Jr. (69) and Jill Emerson (28).

Those Second Ward results did not change at all with Tuesday’s final count of absentee ballots, Hieronymus said.